How could I not be an engineer?’ asks Stephen Ball. ‘My father was an engineer. I was a kid of the 1960s. I was fascinated by technology. The year I left school, man landed on the moon, Concorde and the Harrier jump jet flew at Farnborough Air Show. It was a time when engineering was exciting and inspiring for a young guy.’

The quiet, unassuming boss of American defence giant Lockheed Martin’s UK operations has worked across the spectrum of British industry, from automotive to aerospace, government and in a small firm, and is an evangelist for engineering as a career.

Unusually for a CEO, Ball left school at 15 to become an apprentice. He went to a technical college and later did a degree via a sandwich course.

When we meet at the firm’s swish but anonymous offices in London’s West End, the world’s largest military contractor had just posted annual results that showed fourth-quarter income came in lower than the City was expecting. The parent company also forecast that revenues would again decline in 2014.

Squeezed defence budgets and the draw-down in Iraq and Afghanistan have forced military suppliers to look outside traditional markets for future growth.

But in Britain, Lockheed Martin’s sales came in slightly ahead of target at $1.1bn (£675m), meaning that since 2009 the firm’s compound annual growth rate has been some 14 per cent. Ball is targeting similar growth for the next three years.

‘In 2013 the UK, in terms of sales delivery as a single country, was the number one outside of America,’ he says.

Last year employee numbers rose from 2,000 to almost 3,100, thanks partly to acquisitions including Scottish business technology firm Amor Group, which provides IT systems to energy, public services and transport sectors.

The group has been the largest supplier of IT to the US government for the past 17 years and wants to expand that presence into the UK market.

Ball highlights a Ministry of Justice IT services contract as a significant win last year. The deal followed a similar contract with the Australian tax office and illustrated how LM can reach across oceans to tap expertise elsewhere in the group.

‘We have got the battle scars. We were able to leverage the experience we have – both good and bad – to win it.

‘It emphasises the internationalisation of Lockheed Martin.’

While the Ministry of Defence remains LM’s primary UK customer, it has made no secret of a desire to win contracts in related areas, often using technologies originally developed for the military.

‘We are by no means the largest player so there are opportunities. The incumbents are in a different position and are much more affected by shrinking budgets.

‘For us, opportunity can still drive growth. The UK, through the fiscal pressure it’s been under, is much more focused on how it spends its money.’

The largest and fastest-growing unit is Lockheed Martin’s operations at Ampthill in Bedfordshire which specialises in armoured vehicles. It is also a partner with Babcock in the Ascent joint venture which trains British military pilots and works at the Royal Navy base at Faslane, in Scotland, to maintain the UK’s strategic nuclear submarine force.

But LM is currently best known here for its aeroplanes, ranging from the 1960s-vintage C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the world’s biggest military project.

Britain is poised to place an order for the F-35, which will be flown by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. The contract is an important one for UK plc as, like the rival Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft produced by BAE Systems and its European partners Airbus and Finmeccanica, the project relies on many British suppliers, including dozens of small to medium-sized enterprises.

Ball explains that the relatively recent arrival of LM in the UK in 1995 and its status as a challenger means it remains agile, in a way that the bigger incumbent defence firms such as BAE Systems struggle to replicate.

‘You sometimes get this dynamic if you are a very large organisation – you have to find enough work to keep the factory primed,’ he says. ‘Because we don’t have the huge base to support we can be much more flexible and adaptable. We are not trying to find customers for cans of beans or whatever. We are trying to find out what customers need.’

Ball also insists that the crucial role of the supply chain in the UK business means it is committed to being a supporter of Britain’s industrial base, which also benefits from some programmes the group delivers in the US.

One example is the fleet of C-130 aircraft flying around the world. All the propellers they use are made in Cheltenham. Another is the long-term relationship with Marshall of Cambridge, to service the Hercules for many European air forces.The strategy is not just about setting up a factory here but becoming part of the industrial landscape, and then to begin exporting UK-produced goods and services to other overseas markets. But why invest here? Ball argues Britain’s national demographics make it strong.

‘We have an education system that is churning out well-qualified engineers and technicians. We have a significant industrial base here, so people are not just qualified but have experience.

‘It is a permissive environment, in that it encourages business and encourages investment.’

In five years Ball would like to see Lockheed Martin boast a balanced portfolio of defence and civil contracts, with the UK government as its main customer, and producing goods and services that can be exported. Besides his own growing workforce, Ball believes the supply chain will continue to prosper. But he confesses to some worries about how children are encouraged to take up an interest in engineering.

‘Some of us remember a period when a lot of people were in engineering and the family knew about it. It was a natural thing to follow.

‘If you don’t have that family background, how do you know it is interesting? A lot of people teaching in schools, through no fault of their own, don’t have that background either.

‘The pipelines into engineering are also now quite limited. We need a layered approach – people who are really clever need to do an engineering degree. At the other end of the scale you need trained technicians who can pick up a spanner and do very little harm. And then there’s the whole piece in between.’

To encourage more people to consider an engineering career, Ball advises they shouldn’t believe it is all about maths and science, which can deter many children.

‘It’s about creativity,’ he says. ‘Engineers actually create the future. Scientists will tell you about it as it is now.

‘The reason we do the science and maths is to make sure it works when we get to the end.’